OK just entered 1.32 in manual cpu voltage. Set LLC to High, booted up and tried prime 95. It shot straight to 1.39v???? From your post Paulie should I try lowering my vcore then and see how that goes?

OK just entered 1.32 in manual cpu voltage. Set LLC to High, booted up and tried prime 95. It shot straight to 1.39v???? From your post Paulie should I try lowering my vcore then and see how that goes?

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Put it on medium, and set cpu voltage to 1.30v. If 1.30v is stable after testing, then try to bring it down a little more. I THINK my 2500K was able to do 4.5 on just 1.26v.

Scratch that When I had entered the manual CPU voltage I hadn't pressed enter which meant it didn't accept the value entered DOH!! I have now changed it to 1.32 and LLC to high and running prime currently it's showing min voltage 1.32, max 1.33.....let's see how it goes!! Thanks for your help guys, PS Sandy Bridge Effin rocks. Boot up times even without an SSD are so swift.

Scratch that When I had enterd the manual CPU voltage I hadn't pressed enter which meant it didn't accept the value entered DOH!! I have now changed it to 1.32 and LLC to high and running prime currently it's showing min voltage 1.32, max 1.33.....let's see how it goes!! Thanks for your help guys, PS Sandy Bridge Effin rocks. Boot up times even without a SSD are so swift.

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What are your temps like in prime? You really shouldn't need that much vcore for 4.5 on that chip. If you prime ok for 15-20 minutes, lower the vcore one step, then test again. It's always good to get the vcore as low as possible and still be stable. It will keep your temps down. Better yet, run LinX for 20 cycles each time. It's fast, and if you pass 20, you are at least reasonably stable.

What are your temps like in prime? You really shouldn't need that much vcore for 4.5 on that chip. If you prime ok for 15-20 minutes, lower the vcore one step, then test again. It's always good to get the vcore as low as possible and still be stable. It will keep your temps down. Better yet, run LinX for 20 cycles each time. It's fast, and if you pass 20, you are at least reasonably stable.

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Yeh I just saw that as a good starting point and if it's successful i will try tweaking it from there. As regards temps, I'm using a Corsair A70 with a push/pull setup but the fans are going through the resistors so they are silent and running at slower speed (I hate a noisy PC) Temps on Prime at the minute are loading around 65c. Whats the max safe temp you guys are working around for your chips?

EDIT - Still going strong on Prime, will try for a bit lower after a ciggie break.

Yeh I just saw that as a good starting point and if it's successful i will try tweaking it from there. As regards temps, I'm using a Corsair A70 with a push/pull setup but the fans are going through the resistors so they are silent and running at slower speed (I hate a noisy PC) Temps on Prime at the minute are loading around 65c. Whats the max safe temp you guys are working around for your chips?

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General rule of thumb is to stay out of the high 70's for stability testing. Supposedly, these chips have a 100c tjmax. and will throttle at 90c but they are 32nm chips, and I have to believe they are more sensitive to heat than Nehalem. If you are staying in the 60's you are doing fine. However, I gotta think if you can get under 1.30v, you'll find load temps in the mid to high 50's. My 2600k under a Venomous-X stays under 55c at 4.5 1.29v.

Hmm my chip is shooting up to 90+ degrees during linx at 4.8ghz 1.42 VCORE on my cooler .. that is with LLC at level 1.

I can't even get a decent overclock without LLC on, so with LLC at level 1 or 2 it gives the proc more VCORE overall right?...

The max I'm benching at the moment without LLC is 4.2ghz, that is where my wall is and I can get that stable using less than 1.3vcore with around 50+ degrees load. 4.3ghz won't even boot at the same voltages

General rule of thumb is to stay out of the high 70's for stability testing. Supposedly, these chips have a 100c tjmax. and will throttle at 90c but they are 32nm chips, and I have to believe they are more sensitive to heat than Nehalem. If you are staying in the 60's you are doing fine. However, I gotta think if you can get under 1.30v, you'll find load temps in the mid to high 50's.

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Looks like I am going for a higher overclock tonight then BTW, I had to downgrade my GTX 460 to a GTS 450 to help fund these new parts. I pulled 23,500 in 3D Mark 06 with my 1090T@4GHz and GTX 460 @920/1830/200. This chip at 4.5GHz has managed to get a 21,000 3DMark Score out of the GTS 450 Would love to see what it could have done with my superclocked 460

That said every game I have tried so far is so smooth, actually smoother than before and GTA IV at max settings plays like a friggin dream

Hmm my chip is shooting up to 90+ degrees during linx at 4.8ghz 1.42 VCORE on my cooler .. that is with LLC at level 1.

I can't even get a decent overclock without LLC on, so with LLC at level 1 or 2 it gives the proc more VCORE overall right?...

The max I'm benching at the moment without LLC is 4.2ghz, that is where my wall is and I can get that stable using less than 1.3vcore with around 50+ degrees load. 4.3ghz won't even boot at the same voltages

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What you have to remember is the closer you get to the chips limit, the more vcore it will need every step of the way. The problem with Sandy Bridge is the enormous clock speed increments every time you push it further. So, if your board has a ton of vdroop, loadline is preventing it from dipping to low.

That 1.42v is really high for these chips. I know you like that 4.8ghz, but you are so much safe at 4.6 and something like 1.374v...just my 2 cents.

What you have to remember is the closer you get to the chips limit, the more vcore it will need every step of the way. The problem with Sandy Bridge is the enormous clock speed increments every time you push it further. So, if your board has a ton of vdroop, loadline is preventing it from dipping to low.

That 1.42v is really high for these chips. I know you like that 4.8ghz, but you are so much safe at 4.6 and something like 1.374v...just my 2 cents.

Randomflip - i have internal PLL voltage disabled and also PLL voltage I have reduced down to 1.7250. That helped alot with temps and stability.

EDIT - Prime is still running like a champ so I'm just going to try 4.6 at the same settings

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Thanks I could probably drop it by setting LLC to level 2 but im not sure what that'll do for the chip itself. This is kind of ridicolous though since I only need 1.315vcore for 4.5ghz to boot and bench

Here's a question. So I have my LLC set to Ultra High which means the voltage is still deviating a tiny little bit from what I set in the bios when loaded. Are there any negative effects other than added heat to setting my LLC at Extreme? Would it affect anything other than the volts passing through the CPU or any adverse affects to other parts such as the PSU?

Here's a question. So I have my LLC set to Ultra High which means the voltage is still deviating a tiny little bit from what I set in the bios when loaded. Are there any negative effects other than added heat to setting my LLC at Extreme? Would it affect anything other than the volts passing through the CPU or any adverse affects to other parts such as the PSU?

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There is no adverse affects from small spikes in voltage, however ultra high may give you to much, and heat the the chip for no good reason. Remember, you only want the voltage as high as it needs to be and no higher. I wouldn't set it beyond medium...if medium is basically eliminating vdroop. That is all LLC is designed to do.

This is odd.. I get the 0x124 error randomly when I'm just doing things on the desktop although it seldom happens. Whats whack is that I can pass 25 LinX runs with 0 errors, could I be pushing my PSU too hard? I mean to be quite honest I don't think 750watts is enough for 2x 6970's, 5x HDDs, 6x 120mm fans, 1x 200mm fan and an i5 clocked at 4.5ghz plus 1x cathode light ..

when I put a 47x+ multi my computer boots but the clocks reset automatically, is this because my PSU doesn't have enough power? It's the same when I try to overclock my RAM, currently its at 1333mhz when I put it to 1600mhz all the clocks reset, it's bugging the hell outta me.

EDIT: RAM is okay now for some reason after I updated my BIOS to F6, still can't reach 5ghz though.

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Try F6a bios. I will give you CPU PLL option, enable it and you will probably get 4.9GHz with 1.300ish volts on CPU.

Thanks for that Zenith, I don't seem to have as good a chip as Paulie had but I'm trying to tweak the hell out of it for the very best voltage/temps combination After reading what you put I raised my CPU PLL to 1.78 which has now enable a 4.7GHz overclock, extreme LLC, which gives me an idle core voltage of 1.34v and loads at 1.38v. Max temps were 70c after an hr and a half and proved to be stable for that time. I have gamed for a bit today and no issues whatsoever.